After declaring the military campaign in Iraq all but over, the United States and Britain last night confronted new challenges as they prepared to begin talks on how the country should be run now that Saddam Hussein has been overthrown.

The talks were aimed at shaping postwar Iraq, but looked more likely to highlight the divisions that run deep among Iraqi opposition groups.

Even before discussions began, thousands of Iraqis protested in the streets of Nasiriyah, saying they wanted to rule themselves and chanting: "No to America, no to Saddam".

About 60 Iraqis, from radical and mainstream Shiite and Sunni Muslim, Kurdish and monarchist groups, were expected to attend the talks, starting late last night Melbourne time.

But many were irked by the US decision to impose Jay Garner, a retired American general, to head an interim postwar administration.");document.write("

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Ahmad Chalabi, the high-profile businessman favoured by the Pentagon, said he would send a representative rather than attend himself. And Iraq's main Shiite Muslim opposition group said it would boycott the meeting.

"We don't accept a US umbrella or anybody else's," said Abdelaziz Hakim, a leader of the Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sought to dampen expectations of the meeting. "It is not a one-off, it's the beginning of a process to restore governance," he said.

British Brigadier-General Tim Cross, a member of Mr Garner's team, said one thing united the Iraqi groups: "I think they want us to leave as quickly as possible. They want to be responsible for their own country again."

The talks started against a backdrop of an improving security situation, with the US saying the lawlessness that marked the first days after Saddam's overthrow was easing.

But last night in Mosul, northern Iraq, US troops were reported to have opened fire on a hostile crowd protesting against a new pro-US governor. At least 10 people died and as many as 100 were wounded, according to the AFP news agency.

Earlier, the US and Britain said the capture on Monday of Tikrit, Saddam's ancestral town north of Baghdad, marked the end of large-scale combat in Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed "victory" against Saddam's regime, but there was now a "heavy responsibility to make the peace worth the war". He said

the coalition would not approach the end of the war in "any spirit of elation, still less of triumphalism, but with a fixed and steady resolve that the cause was just, the victory right".

Responding to questions about the whereabouts of Saddam's chemical weapons, Mr Blair said seven of 146 known sites were under investigation, but cautioned that it might take time to discover the extent of the arsenal.

In other developments:

President George Bush invited Prime Minister John Howard to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for a meeting on May 2 and 3 that will include talks on the postwar administration of Iraq and Australia's free-trade agreement with the US.

Twelve Australian military specialists will travel to Iraq this week to search for weapons of mass destruction. RAAF air traffic controllers and other military units will later join peacekeeping operations. Defence Minister Robert Hill said SAS troops and F/A-18 fighters should come home soon.